D&D 5E 5th Edition and Cormyr: Flexing My Idea Muscle and Thinking Out Loud

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Kythorn. Eighth day of the third tenday.

The prolonged absence of Huntsilver family members in Suzail has left the city’s residents to wonder if that family’s long decline has finally reached its end. A number of rumors have made the rounds, some more preposterous than others. Among them:

• A majority of the family and numerous servants were shrunk to the size of a child’s doll in the chaos of the Spellplague, and these unfortunates and their descendants live on within a number of fine archaels (elaborate dollhouses) assembled at a secret location known only to the eldest Huntsilvers and their most trusted advisers.
• Huntsilver males have decamped to the family’s numerous holdings throughout Cormyr, there to “visit” as many willing local lasses as possible in order to “grow the family”.
• An increasing number of Huntsilvers have gone on hunts within the King’s Forest and disappeared, these disappearances not the result of misfortune or foul play, but instead the result of failed attempts to rescue an entire branch of the family that was waylaid by a troll king and kept prisoner in the darkest corners of a fey realm that shares an ever-shifting magical border with the King’s Forest.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Eighth day of the first tenday.

Adventurers continue to make their way across Cormyr to answer the summons of their noble patrons. Several adventuring companies have been sighted at Castle Crag, High Horn, and the Royal Court, there to purchase or renew their royal adventuring charters. An agreement between the nobility and senior courtiers will allow for a maximum of six chartered adventurers to escort the head of each house through Suzail’s gates on the day of the Queen’s Eleasias Council, where she is expected to address concerns over trade, expanding Cormyr’s borders, and the need to identify threats to the realm. Crown watchers foresee a Royal decree falling upon noble heads requiring the sponsorship of at least one adventuring company of good repute per year.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Second day of the second tenday.

Rumors emanating from the Bold Blazon, in Suzail, suggest a new sea-born power is arranging for the theft of goods out of ship holds on the Dragonmere. Other rumors suggest the recent cargo disappearances in Marsember are punishments meted out by Umberlee for lack of proper offerings to the goddess. One wild rumor claims ship captains will be apprehended and made to appear before the goddess for their crimes against her. Those who fail her judgment will be returned to land and their ships cursed never to sail her waters again.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Third day of the second tenday.

The sages resident within Dragonhaven, in Suzail, have offered a reward for the safe return of a trio of books stolen from their collection. The lost tomes are: Codex Anathema: Simple Curses For Driving Off Creatures Of All Kinds, Brantharl’s Book of Exalted Thaumaturgy, and Tenthraft’s Thaethar. One hundred golden lions have been promised for each book in addition to a tenday’s free access to Dragonhaven’s book collections.

-

The Company of the Black Gryphon has parted ways with House Goldsword. A stunning bit of news, considering the Black Gryphon has enjoyed the patronage of the Goldswords for five successful years of adventure and plunder. House Illance is thought to be the culprit behind it all.

-

Ships from across the Sea of Fallen Stars are ferrying adventurers to Suzail. Recent arrivals include a pair of adventuring companies from Telflamm and an all dragonborn company from Djerad Thymar.

-

Preparations for Shieldmeet are taking place across Cormyr.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Fifth day of the second tenday.

Brantharl’s Book of Exalted Thamauturgy has been found. The missing tome was discovered inside an attic cupboard above The High and the Low (a shop in Suzail’s Windmarket District) by members of Ingleiyr's Loyal Daggers, a band of adventurers known to be active in the vicinity of Landuth in eastern Cormyr nigh the Vast Swamp. The Loyal Daggers collected their reward and departed Dragonhaven swiftly, the adventurers reportedly hot on the trail of Tenthraft’s Thaethar. The timely return of the missing tome to the sages of Dragonhaven, despite so many other adventurers in Suzail looking for them, suggests these “backwater adventurers” are a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Seventh day of the second tenday.

Merchants arriving in Suzail from Iriaebor have shared news of folk fleeing the villages of Hluthvar and Corm Orp some two month ago, after Hobgoblin armies surrounded both settlements. Villagers were allowed to leave with whatever possessions they could carry on foot or on wagons. Those who chose to remain were promised honorable deaths in combat. The hobgoblins seemed unafraid, or perhaps unaware, of the proximity of Darkhold.

-

Loyal retainers of the young lord Eldaunar Haldoneir attempted to waylay an unmarked coach not long after it departed Suzail’s Eastgate yestermorn. The carriage was stopped and its doors were forced open in the belief that Eldaunar would be found inside. However, the retainers were met by drawn swords and wands, as the carriage and its occupants were a ruse employed by adventurers bent on capturing the last of Eldaunar’s lawless minions.

-

The East Way has been repaired and folk have returned to this most vital route connecting the Forest Kingdom to the southern Dalelands. The fast-growing village of Immerford played host to merchants unwilling to brave the Hullack while the Way was closed. During the layover, trade alliances were reportedly forged between certain Dales-based shipping concerns with connections to ports on the Dragon Reach and various of the merchants and crafters based in Immerford.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Eighth day of the second tenday.

In Suzail, representatives of Teziir have turned over to Cormyrean authorities the survivors of a bloody battle involving the Scarlet Knights of Halfhap and the Six Bold Bards. According to the representative of Teziir’s ruling Trade Council, a battle between the two adventuring parties erupted within Pelandro’s Peerless Shipyards two tendays ago. The resulting destruction saw one ship sunk and two ships damaged beyond repair. The shipyard owner, Pelandro Rahavillar, was badly injured in the conflict and could not make the journey to Cormyr to seek reparations. The representative, hight Aldrazgora Khalvidar, is expected to make her case before the Queen within the Chamber of the Purple Dragon on the morrow.

-

A dung-carter, one Belphor Sundarl, is telling a tale to all who will listen about “a necromancer, most assuredly” whom the carter saw purchase several complete skeletons from Felsharp’s Bonepile nigh the Wormpits west of Suzail. The necromancer promptly animated the skeletons, then dazzled her apprentices and the dung-carter alike with an elaborate casting that rearranged the bones into a pair of “carts” born on skeletal hands and feet. Skulls sat atop the four corners of each cart, and the eyes were made to glow ominous reds and foreboding blues as the necromancer whispered words to them.

-

Far-traveled merchants newly arrived in Suzail have shared news of happenings in distant Amn. Among them are the activities of High Scrivener Ambaerostrus of Athkatla, who has created the Holy Order of Truth. This order is dedicated to combating the “three Great Foes'' of Deneir, Lord of All Glyphs, those foes being Ignorance, Uncertainty, and Speculation.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Tenth day of the second tenday.

Word of a murder within the Royal Court has spread like wildfire through Suzail. The Royal High Scribe of Cormyr, hight Tampras Irorlar, was found murdered within his office yestereve by an underscribe. Tampras’s corpse was reportedly empty of blood, that blood having found its way out of his body and onto the papers on his desk, the ceiling over his head, and numerous of the books and scrolls adorning the shelves in his office. Whispered rumor has pinned the blame on any of several adventuring companies resident in Suzail that have darkshield reputations. Among Suzail’s “informed” court watchers there is tacit agreement that Aldegrand’s pompous nature finally goaded one or more of his rivals to put an end to him. That magic was used to slay the royal scribe is certain. There were no visible wounds on his corpse.

-

Talk circulating in Suzail tells of Ambaerostrus of Athkatla’s Holy Order of Truth. The High Scrivener is said to have named two Holy Leaders to assist him in running the order. The first is Belertus Mhellovrar, a Glyphscribe formerly based in Zazesspur, in Tethyr, and the second is a man still wanted by authorities in Sembia: the traveling Glyphscribe Taumpras Irorlar.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. First day of the third tenday.

Tavern talk has put the number of adventuring companies in Suzail upwards of seventy five. Some of these adventurers are complaining of long waits at the Royal Court to see royal scribes in order to pay for and receive their adventuring charters. The Crown has since increased the number of scribes on duty and left one (heavily guarded) entrance to the Royal Court open at all hours to adventurers seeking a charter.

-

A trading cog arrived overnight in Suzail. Such dockings are discouraged for the danger of navigating by night (though the docks remain reasonably well lit) and to keep ships from ignoring Crown law. Hastily mustered Purple Dragons were dispatched, presumably to remind the ship’s captain of the rules she’d broken. In lieu of shouts and a promise of arrest, the Dragons instead were seen to haul away two shipping crates by means of a wagon, on which a tired looking Wizard of War sat with a wand at the ready. Rumor on Suzail’s docks claims the pair of crates offloaded by night carried entirely different things. The first held sea elf skulls with jaws bound in gold, while the second held parchment of fine quality and make (to be used in mage’s spellbooks, folk claim). Some of the ship’s crew disembarked alongside the Purple Dragons, but all of them returned to their ship within an hour. The cog departed Suzail one bell before sunrise, destination unknown.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Flamerule. Second day of the third tenday.

The presence of so many adventurers in Suzail has turned tavern talk in the direction of their exploits. Perhaps the most popular of the recent stories told involves the adventures of the Ferocious Five of Thunderstone, who claim to have battled an entire clan of werewolves in the Hullack Forest and rescued four missing Purple Dragons from their clutches before the Dragons could be turned and made to serve the pack leader’s wicked purposes.